True Affection
by stasisindarkness
Summary: Neglected by her parents whose sole objective is to use her for money, can Princess Sakura Haruno ever find the peace she has so desperately sought? AU.


**After a long hiatus from this site, I've decided to return god knows why. Please bear in mind that I started this story half-jokingly and then got really into it as the story progressed.**

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There was once a princess named Sakura. She was always very lonely and despondent. But one day, she grew bored of her daily routine of staying confined to her castle so she ventured into the woods to get some fresh air in her vintage lace dress.

As she was walking through the forest with tepidity, she suddenly heard rustling in the trees behind her, and three muscular men appeared. Instantly recognizing her, one of the men grabbed her, forcibly quieting her.

"She's the princess! If we take her hostage, we can hold her for ransom!" The man yelled over her frantic exertions.

Princess Sakura struggled to get free but her attempts were futile; he was just too strong. She tried screaming for help but his grip on her throat silenced any screams that attempted to erupt from there.

Sasuke sighed as he set down his sword, wiping away beads of sweating forming on his brow with the back of his hand. He had been training in the forest for all of morning and the most of the afternoon. As he turned to go home, he heard a commotion not too far from him. Sighing in annoyance, he wondered whether or not to trouble himself with trivial matters such as a small animal creating a disturbance amongst the bushes. He was about to go investigate the source of sound when a rather small girl in a pink dress ran past him at an incredible speed.

Her cheeks were flushed scarlet and she stumbled for a second, regaining her balance as two of the men caught up to her.

"Get her!" The third man who had been holding her before was now on the floor in pain. The girl had managed to kick him in that special place apparently. Sasuke was bewildered. The man on the ground seemed to be at least three times as big as the teenage girl running away.

Princess Sakura made the mistake of wearing high heels and tripped over a weed sprung from the earth in a messy upheaval. She gasped and tried to pull away as one of the men grabbed her leg that had twisted, shooting pain through her body.

"Get off me!" She screamed through grit teeth, kicking at his hand with her other free leg. Sasuke watched with slight amusement as the rebellious girl tried to run with her twisted ankle.

His smirk suddenly disappeared as they managed to grab hold of her again, each grabbing her arms and legs with upmost brute strength. He sighed. His conscience wouldn't allow him to simply stand by and watch as she was attacked.

Grabbing the hilt of his sword of Kusanagi out of habit, Sasuke walked towards them with an ominous flare. Once the men noticed him, they shifted their positions and tried to force her to her feet; she let out a small whimper of pain, her ankle swollen and unforgiving.

"Let her go." Sasuke stared at them through his dark, hard eyes, his jaw clenching as his eyes swirled dangerously to form the mangekyou sharigan: the rare bloodline limit of his prestigious family. He wasn't really sure as to why two grown, burly men were trying to restrain a young, defenseless woman, but the very idea made him sick to his stomach.

Sakura regarded the man in the distance with uncertainty. Was he another man who wanted to take her for the money that her esteemed family owned? She sighed and was suddenly gasping as she fell to the ground, caught at the last minute by lean, muscular pale arms. Sasuke had knocked the men unconscious when Sakura had been deep in her musings.

He supported all of her weight with one arm, helping her limp to a nearby rock by a pond.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked her as he regarded her with his deep eyes that had returned to their original, deep obsidian hue, the redness no longer staining their purity.

Sakura looked up at him, completely entranced by his extremely good looks and mesmerizing eyes. They seemed to pierce into her soul, to see all of her secrets and absorb them and make them his own. She immediately blushed and turned away. "Y-yes I'm fine. Thank you for saving me." She tried to stand but was inhibited by her incompetent leg.

"You can't walk like that. If you exert your leg beyond its capabilities, you'll cause more damage to your ankle." Sakura sighed in frustration and looked at the ground. Sasuke looked at her with amusement written all over his face.

He really admired the tall woman; she had handled a burly man on her own, and caused slight damage to another. He smiled and stood, adjusting his tools. He turned to leave, and was expecting to be held back by Sakura and was shocked, to say the least, when he turned to see her limping back to wherever she came from. Sasuke sighed and walked towards her, picking her up in one swift motion.

Sakura gasped and grabbed onto his shirt by instinct alone, an impulse driven half by fear and half by the subconscious notion that he would protect her.

"So where were you coming from?"

Sakura sighed. "My home."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at her short, seemingly stubborn answers. "Where is this home of yours located?"

Sakura was about to give him directions to her castle when she suddenly fell into a deep slumber, a dark oblivion that seemed impossible to penetrate. Sasuke became alarmed, shaking her a bit to wake her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He sighed when his soft ministrations gave no response. It seemed to him that she had been bewitched by a sleeping elixir that had just taken effect. Those men had probably slipped it into her system when she wasn't aware; they had been really desperate.

He sighed yet again.

There was only one option that came to his mind that at least seemed remotely reasonable: taking her home with him.

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**Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.**


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